About

Alexandra Rodman is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and the Center for Cognitive and Brain Health at Northeastern University. She completed her PhD in Psychology (Clinical Science) and a Postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, and earned her BA in Clinical Psychology at Tufts University. As a clinical psychologist by training, her interdisciplinary research bridges developmental cognitive neuroscience and clinical science. Her work focuses on the social worlds of teens, examining how social experiences interact with ongoing cognitive and brain development to increase risk for mental health problems during adolescence, a period of heightened vulnerability. She studies how social processing and behavior during adolescence differ from those in children and adults, and how such differences may influence mental health risks. Her research employs advanced quantitative methods, integrating experimental and observational approaches, including neuroimaging (MRI), novel behavioral tasks, and digital phenotyping of real-world behavior via mobile phones. Her goal is to lay the foundation for future translational clinical research aimed at improving adolescent wellbeing.

Research topics

• Clinical psychology
• Psychiatry
• Medicine
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Psychotherapist
• Neuroscience

Selected publications

• Reduced hippocampal and amygdala volume as a mechanism underlying stress sensitization to depression following childhood trauma

  UNC Libraries · 2026-03-27

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Stressful life events are more likely to trigger depression among individuals exposed to childhood adversity. However, the mechanisms underlying this stress sensitization remain largely unknown. Any such mechanism must be altered by childhood adversity and interact with recent stressful life events, magnifying their association with depression. AIM: This study investigated whether reduced hippocampal and amygdala volume are potential mechanisms underlying stress sensitization following childhood violence exposure. METHOD: A sample of 149 youth (aged 8-17 years), with (N = 75) and without (N = 74) exposure to physical abuse, sexual abuse, or domestic violence participated. Participants completed a structural MRI scan and assessments of depression. Approximately 2 years later, stressful life events were assessed along with depression symptoms in 120 participants (57 violence exposed). RESULTS: Childhood violence exposure was associated with smaller hippocampal and amygdala volume. Stressful life events occurring during the follow-up period predicted worsening depression over time, and this association was magnified among those with smaller hippocampal and amygdala volumes. Significant moderated mediation models revealed the indirect effects of violence exposure on increasing depression over time through hippocampal and amygdala volumes, particularly among youths who experienced more stressful life events. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide evidence for reduced hippocampal and amygdala volume as potential mechanisms of stress sensitization to depression following exposure to violence. More broadly, these patterns suggest that hippocampal and amygdala-mediated emotional and cognitive processes may confer vulnerability to stressful life events among children who have experienced violence.

  PublisherDOI

• Working Just to Know: Exerting Effort for Non-Instrumental Information Under Risk

  OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · 2026-03-14

  other
  Publisher

• The role of caregiver emotion regulation in youth mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study – CORRIGENDUM

  Development and Psychopathology · 2025-06-30

  erratum
  PublisherDOI

• Social threat and adolescent mental health

  Nature Reviews Psychology · 2025-08-22 · 6 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Contributions of Emotion Regulation and Brain Structure and Function to Adolescent Internalizing Problems and Stress Vulnerability During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study

  UNC Libraries · 2025-06-05

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Fluctuations in emotion regulation as a mechanism linking stress and internalizing psychopathology among adolescents: An intensive longitudinal study

  Behaviour Research and Therapy · 2024-05-08 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Within-Person Fluctuations in Objective Smartphone Use and Emotional Processes During Adolescence: An Intensive Longitudinal Study

  Affective Science · 2024-07-24 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  = 206 monthly observations for up to 12 months, 12-17 years), we used digital phenotyping methods to objectively measure within-person fluctuations in smartphone use (screen time, pickups, notifications) across different categories (social media, communication, entertainment, games) and examined their prospective, bidirectional associations with positive and negative mood. Bayesian hierarchical models showed that when adolescents reported better mood than usual, they subsequently spent more time on communication apps and launched social media and communication apps upon pickup less often. Meanwhile, when adolescents used entertainment apps more than usual, they subsequently reported improved mood. These preliminary findings suggest a pattern where fluctuations in mood relate to subsequent changes in smartphone use that are primarily social, whereas the fluctuations in smartphone use relating to subsequent changes in mood were primarily entertainment-related. We found little evidence that within-person fluctuations in screen time or social media use were associated with increases in negative mood, as frequently theorized. These findings highlight the importance of disentangling the distinct components of smartphone use that relate to affective processes and examining their bidirectional, prospective relationships over time, due to the possibility of differential outcomes. This work is a necessary first step in identifying targets for intervention efforts promoting resilience and wellbeing during adolescence. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-024-00247-z.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Working Just to Know: Exerting Effort for Non-Instrumental Information Under Risk

  2024-10-08 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  People constantly invest effort to seek information in everyday life, even if the information is of no instrumental value for the decision at hand. However, the mechanism underlying people’s willingness to exert effort in exchange for information remains unclear. Previous work has suggested that valence and uncertainty are two key factors influencing information-seeking, but few studies have tested if these factors are important when exerting physical effort in exchange for information. Additionally, it remains unknown whether different kinds of uncertainty, i.e., risk and ambiguity, have differential impacts. In the current study, we developed a novel information-seeking task to quantify the value of non-instrumental information using incentive-compatible physical effort to examine how effort changes as a function of valence and uncertainty. Across two studies (N = 123), we found that people’s willingness to exert effort positively correlates with outcome expected value under both risk and ambiguity. Additionally, people exert more effort when outcome distribution uncertainty increases in risky situations, but are insensitive to ambiguity, except when facing extreme ambiguity. Our results demonstrate an unexpected dissociation. Humans willengage in effort-based information-seeking, even for non-instrumental information, when facing risk. In contrast, they show a much lower willingness to expend effort to resolve non-instrumental ambiguity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The role of caregiver emotion regulation in youth mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study

  Development and Psychopathology · 2024-10-04 · 4 citations

  article

  Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has presented youth and families with a broad spectrum of unique stressors. Given that adolescents are at increased risk for mental health and emotional difficulties, it is critical to explore family processes that confer resilience for youth in the face of stress. The current study investigated caregiver emotion regulation (ER) as a familial factor contributing to youth ER and risk for psychopathology following stressful life events. In a longitudinal sample of 224 youth ( M age = 12.65 years) and their caregivers, we examined whether caregiver and youth engagement in ER strategies early in the pandemic mediated the associations of pandemic-related stress with youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms six months later. Leveraging serial mediation analysis, we demonstrated that caregiver and youth rumination, but not expressive suppression or cognitive reappraisal, mediated the prospective associations of pandemic-related stress with youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Greater exposure to pandemic-related stressors was associated with greater caregiver rumination, which, in turn, related to greater rumination in youth, and higher levels of youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms thereafter. Family interventions that target caregiver ER, specifically rumination, may buffer against the consequences of stress on youth engagement in maladaptive ER strategies and risk for psychopathology.

  PublisherDOI

• Fluctuations in Emotion Regulation as a Mechanism Linking Stress and Internalizing Psychopathology among Adolescents: An Intensive Longitudinal Study

  2023-02-14

  preprintOpen access

  Stressful life events (SLEs) are tightly coupled with the emergence of anxiety and depression symptoms among adolescents, but the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain poorly understood. We investigated within-person fluctuations in emotion regulation as a mechanism linking SLEs and internalizing psychopathology in an intensive longitudinal study. We examined how monthly fluctuations in SLEs were related to engagement in three emotion regulation strategies—acceptance, reappraisal, and rumination—and whether these strategies were associated with changes in internalizing symptoms in adolescents followed for one year (N=30; n=355 monthly observations). Bayesian hierarchical models revealed that on months when adolescents experienced more SLEs than was typical for them, they also engaged in more rumination, which, in turn, was associated with higher anxiety and depression symptoms and mediated the prospective relationship between SLEs and internalizing symptoms. In contrast, greater use of acceptance and reappraisal moderated the association between stressors and internalizing symptoms, resulting in stronger links between SLEs and symptoms. These results suggest that emotion regulation strategies play different roles in the stress-psychopathology relationship. Understanding how changes in emotion regulation contribute to increases in psychopathology following experiences of stress may provide novel targets for interventions aimed at reducing stress-related psychopathology.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Katie A. McLaughlin

  Harvard University Press

  27 shared

• Steven William Kasparek

  Harvard University

  11 shared

• Maya L. Rosen

  11 shared

• Patrick Mair

  11 shared

• Darin D. Dougherty

  11 shared

• Thilo Deckersbach

  Diploma Hochschule

  11 shared

• Andrew N. Meltzoff

  University of Washington

  10 shared

• Makeda Mayes

  University of Washington

  9 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Psychology (Clinical Science)

  Harvard University

• Other

  Harvard University

• B.A., Clinical Psychology

  Tufts University

Awards & honors

• 2025 Tier 1 Award Winners